As the school year comes to an end, the school halls are filled with students' conversing about their summer plans, an the joys of the school year being over. However, for many students, school isn't nearly over. Some schools task their students with summer projects to ensure that students keep learning outside of the school year. Ultimately, it is questioned whether the project should be teacher-designed, or student-designed. When a student is given the power to design their own project, it allows the student to grow mentally and help broaden their learning horizons. This allows students to base their project on something that they are heavily interested in, others might even venture beyond what they are already familiar with, and lastly it motivates them to complete their assignment with passion.

It is very often that when a student is told they must complete a project based off a topic that they aren't interested in, their initial thought may be that the project will be boring and difficult. However, when they are allowed to chose their topic, it is very likely that their perspective might change into a more positive point of view. When picking topics for a project, most students are inclined to base it on something that they have a liking for. When I was in middle school, I was part of a program called the

Gifted and Talented, this program was centered on both, group and individual projects. We had been assigned a project in honor of Earth Day and due to my immense love and interest for marine life, I had decided on creating a vessel that would roam the ocean and detect any trash that had been tossed into the water, and collect it. After I had researched where most ocean trash was found, I had decided that this vessel would remain near beaches and ports. If the teacher had designed the project and told us that we had to create something on a specific topic such as, prevention of forest fires, there could have been a chance that I hadn't been as enthused and wouldn't have tried as much. Not only did this project help me think outside the box, but it also helped me decide on my future career by allowing me to research more on a topic that I was interested in.

Furthermore, instead of sticking with something familiar, students might try and explore other topics in which they lack knowledge. By learning about different subjects, one is able to broaden their educational horizons, which may come in handy later on in life. I once new a woman who arrived at college "undecided". She was unsure of what to major in, and she was later told that she needed to complete a project in a subject of her choosing by the end of the year. Soon after the news, she realized that she needed to decide on a project fast, so she decided she would join her parish during one of their visits to a poor community out of town. She had no knowledge of how to help the people in the community, but she believed that she would be able to both accomplish her project, and make an impact on these people's lives. Her project was then completed after she spent her summer building ramps, cooking meals, and painting murals for that community. Soon after her project was completed, she decided that she would major in Social Services, because making an impact in people's lives and helping them achieve a better life was something she would want to do as a career.

By being able to choose her project, she was able to broaden all of her horizons and grow as a person as well as mentally mature through her experiences. Once again, if there had been restrictions on that project and it was no longer on a topic of her choosing, but instead she had to complete a paper on politics, she could've spent a couple more years undecided, or she could've dropped out of college.

Lastly, when students are allowed to design their own projects, they not only take their time to complete their project, but they pay attention to every last detail, and make sure that everything is done to their liking. It can be said that some of these projects are the result of passion. For example, during my Sophomore year in high school, I was assigned a project based off a genocide of my choosing. Originally I thought I would do this project on the Rwandan genocide, but thought better of it since I was already familiar with it. In the end, I decided on the Cambodian Genocide and decided I would be doing a scrapbook for the execution of the project. At first the research was a bit slow since I was unfamiliar with the topic, but as I learned more about the subject, I found a passion for the project I didn't know I had. I began working on the scrapbook everyday after school over the course of a month. By the time the deadline had come, the project had been completed and was ready to be displayed on Genocide Night. In the end, I was able to score a high grade, and even used my research for a project assigned for my art class a year later.

All in all, student designed projects are beneficial for the student as it gives them the opportunity to increase their knowledge in a variety of topics as well as help them mentally mature. When given the choice to infinite possibilities, there is plenty of space for infinite success. Teacher designed projects, more often than not, are usually seen as boring, time consuming tasks, because they are created by someone that doesn't have a students interests in mind. Projects assigned during the school year are solely based on the topic they are learning, or book they are reading in class. However, summer projects should not have that restriction despite the project's purpose of making sure that students are learning. Students should be allowed to take the reigns on their projects, and lead them in the direction that they want to go in. When students are given the freedom of choosing, they are more inclined to learn and retain that information, then when they are forced to learn about things they could care less about. 